1683 BC
. Next map: '''1667 BC (Maps Index)]] 1683 BC - CADMUS GOES TO HELLENES MAIN EVENTS 1692 BC - Cadmus founds Thebes in Boeotia In 1692 BC, Cadmus left Phoenicia and went to Hellenes, where he founded the city of Thebes in Boeotia as its king. He is remembered for bringing with him the Phoenician alphabet or rather 'abjad'. It is known that the Greek alphabet took its form from the Phoenician abjad, but it could not have been this early, as that Phoenician abjad seems to have taken its form by ca. 1050 BC. Even the Ugaritic cuneiform does not show up this early. However primitive scripts such as the Byblos syllabary were in use, and pre-Greek 'Linear' alphabets do start to show up in Greece around this time, so this is more likely what Cadmus brought. Abjads this early would be little known and probably confined to the original pre-Semitic (Enoshian) glyphs among few Joktanites and Hebrews, or Sabaean glyphs derived from these; and the similar 'uniliterals' but with different values as used in Egyptian writing. Neferhotep I had replaced Sobekhotep III as Pharaoh in Thebes, Egypt the preceding year, 1693 BC. His governor in Gebal (Byblos), Phoenicia during this time after Cadmus was Yantinu or Yantin-ammu, who incidentally proves the synchronicity of Neferhotep and Hammurabi. 1691-1687 BC - Campaigns of Hammurabi In 1691 BC, Hammurabi of Babylon was able to seize Isin and Uruk from Rim-Sin in Larsa. Babylon's claims to be the new capital of the world and not Nippur, were increasing as Larsa's, and Nippur too, faded more. By 1688 BC Hammurabi had extended Babylon's authority to Malgium, and by 1687 BC, all the way north to Rapiqum, which he seized that year. Dadusha, who had followed Dannum-tahaz as king of Warum (Eshnunna) in 1704 BC, seized the town of Meturan in 1689 BC. 1688 BC - Island cities founded In this year cities were founded on three Aegean islands, two north of Crete and one south of Thrace, and a fourth in eastern Alashia (Cyprus), by the Amazons under their Queen Smyrna, who had pressed down to the south coast in Asia Minor, confining the Luwians to Lukka and Kizzuwatna. Also around this time, the Danish prince Shield (Skiold) challenged Skat of Allemania (Helvetia) in combat for the hand of Alfhild, daughter of 'Henricus of Saxony' (Ingram of Boigeria), in sight of the Danish and Teuton armies. Shield killed Skat, won Alfhild, and made Allemannia tributary to Danica for a time. (Saxo) 1687 BC - Mariandrina and Lukka colonized In 1687 BC Phoenix, who had governed Phoenicia before his son Cadmus and was still in the area, carved out another colony or fief on the Black Sea in part of Bithynia, called Mariandrina, once part of Apis' old province of Maroneia. In Crete, princes Minos and Sarpedon, the adopted sons of king Asterius and their mother Europa (a sister of Phoenix), quarreled; Sarpedon, remembered as a notorious sodomite, was exiled to Lukka where he managed to become their leader and king in the resistance against the Amazons. The city of Miletus was named for his favourite. This would be conflated to the Trojan war period (1193-83 BC) in some later accounts such as Homer, but data in the annals of Hieronymus, taken from Castor (themselves including the major gaps between here and the fall of Troy) allow it to be placed here. Also in 1687 BC, Epopeus, from Thessaly according to Pausanias, succeeded Corax in Sicyon, or Aigealea as it was still known. 1686-1683 BC - Campaigns of Shamshi-adad In 1686 BC, Shamshi-adad I made the Asshur-Qatna alliance against Yamkhad with Ishi-adad of Qatna; with this move Shamshi-adad also appointed his son Yasmah-adad as king in Mari, married to princess Beltum of Qatna; and further reestablished the Karum trade union with the Hattians, where Warshamma had ruled in Kanesh since 1692 BC. Since the Hurrians in Carchemish (Hahhum) just north of Yamkhad also switched their allegiance to Asshur at this point, Sumu-epuh in Yamkhad was now surrounded. In 1685 BC Shamshi-adad took Qabrum, in Gutium. The Gutians pressed north against the Turukku, who began to press west, against Asshur, and Yamkhad at least found one ally, in the chief of Turukku. Then in 1684 BC Shamshi-Adad and his elder son, Ishme-dagan (Belochus), who had been made viceroy of Ekallatum since 1692 BC, defeated the chiefs of Ahazum and 8 other places named in lacunae, and evidently Sumu-Epuh too was killed in this war and succeeded in Yamkhad by Yarim-lim. In 1683 BC Shamshi-adad defeated and subjected the Turukku, while his son Yasmah-adad in Mari defeated and subjected the Benjamina. With all his allies defeated, Sumu-epuh's successor Yarim-lim, still hosting the exiled Mariote prince Zimri-lim, now turned to alliance with Babylon (Hammurabi) and Warum.